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    Container Service for Kubernetes:Create an ACK managed cluster

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    Container Service for Kubernetes:Create an ACK managed cluster

    Last Updated:Oct 08, 2023

    To create a Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) managed cluster, you only need to create nodes. You do not need to maintain control planes. The control planes are created and managed by ACK. This reduces O&M costs and allows you to focus on application development. This topic describes how to create an ACK managed cluster in the ACK console.

    Table of contents

    Prerequisites

    ACK is activated and ACK authorization is completed.

    Limits

    Item

    Limit

    Links for increasing quota limits/references

    Networks

    ACK clusters support only VPCs.

    What is a VPC?

    Cloud resources

    ECS

    The pay-as-you-go and subscription billing methods are supported. After an ECS instance is created, you can change its billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription in the ECS console.

    Change the billing method of an ECS instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription

    VPC route entries

    By default, you can add at most 200 route entries to the VPC of an ACK cluster that runs Flannel. VPCs of ACK clusters that run Terway do not have this limit. If you want to add more route entries to the VPC of your ACK cluster, request a quota increase for the VPC.

    Quota Center

    Security groups

    By default, you can create at most 100 security groups with each account.

    View and increase resource quotas

    SLB instances

    By default, you can create at most 60 pay-as-you-go SLB instances with each account.

    Quota Center

    EIP

    By default, you can create at most 20 EIPs with each account.

    Quota Center

    Billing

    For more information about the billing rules of ACK clusters, see Billing.

    Step 1: Log on to the ACK console

    1. Log on to the ACK console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.

    2. In the upper-right corner of the Clusters page, click Create Kubernetes Cluster.

    Step 2: Configure a cluster

    On the Managed Kubernetes page, configure the basic settings and advanced settings of the cluster.

    Basic settings

    Parameter

    Description

    All Resources

    Move the pointer over All Resources at the top of the page and select the resource group that you want to use. After you select a resource group, virtual private clouds (VPCs) and vSwitches that belong to the resource group are displayed. When you create a cluster, only the VPCs and vSwitches that belong to the selected resource group are displayed in the console. Resource Group

    Cluster Name

    Enter a name for the cluster.
    Note The name must be 1 to 63 characters in length, and can contain digits, letters, hyphens (-), and underscores (_). The name cannot start with an underscore (_).

    Cluster Type

    Select a cluster type. You can select Professional or Standard edition. We recommend that you use Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) Pro clusters in the production environment and test environment. ACK standard clusters can meet the learning and testing needs of individual users.

    Region

    Select a region to deploy the cluster.

    Billing Method

    Two billing methods are supported: Pay-As-You-Go and Subscription. If you select the subscription billing method, you must set the following parameters:
    Note If you set Billing Method to Subscription, only Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances and Server Load Balancer (SLB) instances are billed on a subscription basis. Other cloud resources are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. For more information about the billing rules of Alibaba Cloud resources, see Billing of cloud services.
    • Duration: You can select 1, 2, 3, or 6 months. If you require a longer duration, you can select 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years.
    • Auto Renewal: Specify whether to enable auto-renewal.

    Kubernetes Version

    The Kubernetes versions supported by ACK are displayed.

    IPv6 Dual-stack

    If you enable IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack, a dual-stack cluster is created. This feature is in public preview. To use this feature, submit an application in Quota Center.
    Important
    • This feature supports only Kubernetes 1.22 and later.
    • IPv4 addresses are used by worker nodes to communicate with the control plane.
    • You must select Terway as the network plug-in.
    • You must use a VPC and ECS instances that support IPv4/IPv6 dual stack.

    VPC

    Select a VPC to deploy the cluster. Standard VPCs and shared VPCs are supported.
    • Shared VPC: The owner of a VPC (resource owner) can share the vSwitches in the VPC with other accounts in the same organization.
    • Standard VPC: The owner of a VPC (resource owner) cannot share the vSwitches in the VPC with other accounts.
    Note ACK clusters support only VPCs. You can select a VPC from the drop-down list. If no VPC is available, click Create VPC to create one. For more information, see Create and manage a VPC.

    Network Plug-in

    Select a network plug-in. Flannel and Terway are supported. For more information, see Terway and Flannel.
    • Flannel: a simple and stable Container Network Interface (CNI) plug-in that is developed by open source Kubernetes. Flannel offers a few simple features and does not support standard Kubernetes network policies.
    • Terway: a network plug-in developed by Alibaba Cloud Container Service. Terway allows you to assign Alibaba Cloud Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) to containers. It also allows you to customize network policies of Kubernetes to control intercommunication among containers, and implement bandwidth throttling on individual containers.
      Note
      • The number of pods that can be deployed on a node depends on the number of ENIs that are attached to the node and the maximum number of secondary IP addresses that are provided by these ENIs.
      • If you select a shared VPC for a cluster, you must select Terway as the network plug-in.
      • If you select Terway, an ENI is shared among multiple pods. A secondary IP address of the ENI is assigned to each pod.
      When you set Network Plug-in to Terway, you can configure the following parameters:
      • Specify whether to enable the Assign One ENI to Each Pod feature. To use the Assign One ENI to Each Pod feature, you need to log on to the Quota Center console and submit an application.
        • If you select the check box, a separate ENI is assigned to each pod.
          Note After you select Assign One ENI to Each Pod, the maximum number of pods supported by a node is reduced. Exercise caution before you enable this feature.
        • If you clear the check box, an ENI is shared among multiple pods. A secondary IP address that is provided by the ENI is assigned to each pod.
      • Specify whether to use IPVLAN.
        • This option is available only when you clear Assign One ENI to Each Pod.
        • If you select IPVLAN, IPVLAN and extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) are used for network virtualization when an ENI is shared among multiple pods. This improves network performance. Only the Alibaba Cloud Linux operating system is supported.
        • If you clear IPVLAN, policy-based routes are used for network virtualization when an ENI is shared among multiple pods. The CentOS 7 and Alibaba Cloud Linux operating systems are supported. This is the default setting.

        For more information about the IPVLAN feature in Terway mode, see Terway IPVLAN.

      • Select or clear Support for NetworkPolicy.
        • The NetworkPolicy feature is available only when you clear Assign One ENI to Each Pod. By default, Assign One ENI to Each Pod is unselected.
        • If you select Support for NetworkPolicy, you can use Kubernetes network policies to control the communication among pods.
        • If you clear Support for NetworkPolicy, you cannot use Kubernetes network policies to control the communication among pods. This prevents Kubernetes network policies from overloading the Kubernetes API server.
      • Select or clear Support for ENI Trunking. To use the Support for ENI Trunking feature, you need to log on to the Quota Center console and submit an application. The Terway Trunk elastic network interface (ENI) feature allows you to specify a static IP address, a separate vSwitch, and a separate security group for each pod. This allows you to manage and isolate user traffic, configure network policies, and manage IP addresses in a fine-grained manner. For more information, see Configure a static IP address, a separate vSwitch, and a separate security group for each pod.

    vSwitch

    Select vSwitches.

    You can select up to three vSwitches that are deployed in different zones. If no vSwitch is available, click Create vSwitch to create one. For more information, see Create and manage a vSwitch.

    Pod vSwitch

    If you select Terway as the network plug-in, you must select vSwitches to allocate IP addresses to pods. For each vSwitch that allocates IP addresses to worker nodes, you must select a vSwitch in the same zone to allocate IP addresses to pods.

    Pod CIDR Block

    If you select Flannel, you must set Pod CIDR Block.

    The pod CIDR block must not overlap with the CIDR block of the VPC, the CIDR blocks of the ACK clusters in the VPC, or the Service CIDR block. The pod CIDR block cannot be modified after it is specified. For more information about how to plan CIDR blocks for an ACK cluster, see Plan CIDR blocks for an ACK cluster.

    Number of Pods per Node

    If you set Network Plug-in to Flannel, you must set Number of Pods per Node.

    Service CIDR

    Set Service CIDR. The Service CIDR block must not overlap with the CIDR block of the VPC, the CIDR blocks of the ACK clusters in the VPC, or the pod CIDR block. The Service CIDR block cannot be modified after it is specified. For more information about how to plan CIDR blocks for an ACK cluster, see Plan CIDR blocks for an ACK cluster.

    IPv6 Service CIDR

    If you enable IPv4/IPv6 dual stack, you must specify an IPv6 CIDR block for Services. When you set this parameter, take note of the following items:
    • You must specify a unique local address (ULA) space within the address range fc00::/7. The prefix must be 112 bits to 120 bits in length.
    • We recommend that you specify an IPv6 CIDR block that has the same number of IP addresses as the Service CIDR block.
    For more information about how to plan CIDR blocks for an ACK cluster, see Plan CIDR blocks for an ACK cluster.

    Configure SNAT

    By default, the check box is selected. If the VPC that you select for the cluster cannot access the Internet, you can select Configure SNAT for VPC. This way, ACK will create a NAT gateway and configure SNAT rules to enable Internet access for the VPC.

    Access to API Server

    By default, an internal-facing SLB instance is created for the Kubernetes API server of the cluster. You can modify the specification of the SLB instance. For more information, see Specifications.
    Important If you delete the SLB instance, you cannot access the API server of the cluster.
    Select or clear Expose API Server with EIP. The ACK API server provides multiple HTTP-based RESTful APIs, which can be used to create, delete, modify, query, and monitor resources, such as pods and Services.
    • If you select this check box, an elastic IP address (EIP) is created and associated with an SLB instance. Port 6443 used by the API server is opened on master nodes. You can connect to and manage the cluster by using kubeconfig files over the Internet.
    • If you clear this check box, no EIP is created. You can connect to and manage the cluster by using kubeconfig files only from within the VPC.

    Security group

    You can select Create Basic Security Group, Create Advanced Security Group, or Select Existing Security Group. For more information about security groups, see Overview.
    Note
    • To enable the Select Existing Security Group option, apply to be added to the whitelist in Quota Center.
    • If you select an existing security group, the system does not automatically configure security group rules. This may cause errors when you access the nodes in the cluster. You must manually configure security group rules. For more information, see Configure security group rules to enforce access control on ACK clusters.

    Deletion Protection

    Specify whether to enable deletion protection for the cluster. Deletion protection can prevent clusters from being accidentally released by using the console or API.

    Resource group

    The resource group that owns the cluster to be created. Each resource can belong only to one resource group. You can regard a resource group as a project, an application, or an organization based on your business scenarios. For more information, see Resource groups.

    Advanced settings

    Click Show Advanced Options to configure advanced settings.

    Show advanced settings

    Parameter

    Description

    Time Zone

    Select a time zone for the cluster. By default, the time zone of your browser is selected.

    Kube-proxy Mode

    iptables and IPVS are supported.
    • iptables is a mature and stable kube-proxy mode. It uses iptables rules to conduct service discovery and load balancing. The performance of this mode is restricted by the size of the Kubernetes cluster. This mode is suitable for Kubernetes clusters that manage a small number of Services.
    • IPVS is a high-performance kube-proxy mode. It uses Linux Virtual Server (LVS) to conduct service discovery and load balancing. This mode is suitable for clusters that manage a large number of Services. We recommend that you use this mode in scenarios where high-performance load balancing is required.

    Labels

    Add labels to nodes in the cluster. Enter a key and a value, and then click Add.
    Note
    • Key is required. Value is optional.
    • Keys are not case-sensitive. A key must be 1 to 64 characters in length and cannot start with aliyun, http://, or https://.
    • Values are not case-sensitive. A value cannot exceed 128 characters in length and cannot contain http:// or https://. A value can be empty.
    • The keys of labels that are added to the same resource must be unique. If you add a label with a used key, the label overwrites the label that uses the same key.
    • If you add more than 20 labels to a resource, all labels become invalid. You must remove excess labels for the remaining labels to take effect.

    Cluster Domain

    Set the domain name of the cluster.
    Note The default domain name is cluster.local. You can enter a custom domain name. A domain name consists of two parts. Each part must be 1 to 63 characters in length and can contain only letters and digits. You cannot leave these parts empty.

    Custom Certificate SANs

    You can enter custom subject alternative names (SANs) for the API server certificate of the cluster to accept requests from specified IP addresses or domain names.

    For more information, see Customize the SAN of the API server certificate when you create an ACK cluster.

    Service Account Token Volume Projection

    ACK provides service account token volume projection to reduce security risks when pods use service accounts to access the Kubernetes API server. This feature enables kubelet to request and store the token on behalf of a pod. This feature also allows you to configure token properties, such as the audience and validity period. For more information, see Enable service account token volume projection.

    Secret Encryption

    If you select Select Key, you can use a key that is created in the Key Management Service (KMS) console to encrypt Kubernetes Secrets. For more information, see Use KMS to encrypt Kubernetes Secrets.

    Step 3: Configure the node pool

    Click Next:Node Pool Configurations to configure the basic settings and advanced settings of the node pool.

    Basic settings

    Parameter

    Description

    Node Pool Name

    Specify a node pool name.

    Managed Node Pool

    Specify whether to enable the managed node pool feature. Managed node pools provided by ACK support auto repair and auto CVE patching. These capabilities reduce your O&M workload and improve node security. For more information, see Overview of managed node pools.

    Maintenance Window

    Note The Maintenance Window parameter is available only for managed node pools.
    Image updates, runtime updates, and Kubernetes version updates are automatically performed during the maintenance window. For more information, see Overview of managed node pools.

    Click Set. In the Maintenance Window dialog box, set the Cycle, Started At, and Duration parameters. Click OK.

    Container Runtime

    Specify the container runtime based on the Kubernetes version. The following list describes the Kubernetes versions supported by different container runtimes:
    • containerd: supports all Kubernetes versions. We recommend that you use containerd.
    • Sandboxed-Container: supports Kubernetes 1.24 and earlier.
    • docker: supports Kubernetes 1.22 and earlier.
    For more information, see Comparison of Docker, containerd, and Sandboxed-Container.

    Instance Type

    You can select multiple instance types. You can filter instance types by vCPU, memory, architecture, or category.
    Note

    The instance types that you select are displayed in the Selected Types section.

    When the node pool is scaled out, ECS instances of the instance types that you select for the Instance Type parameter are created. The scaling policy of the node pool determines which instance types are used to create new nodes during scale-out activities. Select multiple instance types to improve the success rate of node pool scale-out operations.
    If the node pool fails to be scaled out because the instance types are unavailable or the instances are out of stock, you can specify more instance types for the node pool. The ACK console automatically evaluates the scalability of the node pool. You can view the scalability level when you create the node pool or after you create the node pool.
    Note ARM-based ECS instances support only images for ARM. For more information about ARM-based node pools, see Configure an ARM-based node pool.

    Selected Types

    The selected instance types are displayed.

    Quantity

    Specify the number of worker nodes (ECS instances) to be created.

    Note

    We recommend that you configure at least two worker nodes. After the cluster is created, you can adjust the number of worker nodes to meet your business requirements. If the cluster has only one worker node or contains low-specification worker nodes, cluster components may not run as expected.

    System Disk

    Enhanced SSDs, standard SSDs, and ultra disks are supported. The types of system disks that you can select depend on the instance types that you select. For more information about the disk types supported by different instance types, see Overview of instance families. Disk types that are not displayed in the drop-down list are not supported by the instance types that you select.
    Note
    • If you select enhanced SSD as the system disk type, you can set a custom performance level for the system disk. You can select higher performance levels for enhanced SSDs with larger storage capacities. For example, you can select performance level 2 for an enhanced SSD with a storage capacity of more than 460 GiB. You can select performance level 3 for an enhanced SSD with a storage capacity of more than 1,260 GiB. For more information, see Capacity and PLs.
    • The Encrypt Disk option is available only for ESSDs. System disks support only the aes-256 encryption algorithm. For more information about system disk encryption, see Encrypt a system disk.

    Mount Data Disk

    Enhanced SSDs (ESSDs), standard SSDs, and ultra disks are supported. The disk types that you can select depend on the instance types that you select. For more information about the disk types supported by different instance types, see Overview of instance families. Disk types that are not displayed in the drop-down list are not supported by the instance types that you select.
    Note
    • If you select ESSD as the system disk type, you can set a custom performance level for the system disk. You can select higher PLs for ESSDs with larger storage capacities. For example, you can select PL 2 for an ESSD with a storage capacity of more than 460 GiB. You can select PL 3 for an ESSD with a storage capacity of more than 1,260 GiB. For more information, see Capacity and PLs.
    • The Encrypt Disk option is available only for ESSDs. Data disk encryption supports only the aes-256 algorithm. You can use only the default service Customer Managed Key (CMK) to encrypt data disks in the China (Nanjing - Local Region), China (Fuzhou - Local Region), Thailand (Bangkok), and South Korea (Seoul) regions. Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) is not supported. For more information about data disk encryption, see Encrypt a data disk.
    • The maximum number of data disks that can be mounted depends on the instance types that you select. You can view the selected data disks and the remaining number of data disks that you can mount on the right side of Mount Data Disk.

    Operating System

    ACK supports images for the following operating systems:
    • Alibaba Cloud Linux 2. This is the default operating system.
    • Alibaba Cloud Linux 3
    • Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 for ARM
    • Alibaba Cloud Linux UEFI 2
    • CentOS
    • Windows
    • Windows Core
    • ContainerOS
    For more information, see Overview of OS images.
    Note
    • After you change the OS image of the node pool, the change takes effect only on newly added node. The existing nodes in the node pool still use the original OS image. For more information about how to update the OS image of an existing node, see Node pool updates.
    • To ensure that all nodes in the node pool use the same OS image, ACK allows you to only update the node OS image to the latest version. ACK does not allow you to change the type of OS image.

    Security Reinforcement

    • Disable: disables security reinforcement for ECS instances.
    • Reinforcement based on classified protection: You can enable security reinforcement only when you select an Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 or Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 image. Alibaba Cloud provides baselines and the baseline check feature to help you check the compliance of Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 images and Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 images with the level 3 standards of Multi-Level Protection Scheme (MLPS) 2.0. For more information, see ACK reinforcement based on classified protection.
      Important

      MLPS reinforcement enhances the security of OS images to meet the requirements of GB/T 22239-2019 Information Security Technology - Baseline for Classified Protection of Cybersecurity without compromising the compatibility and performance of the OS images.

      After you enable MLPS reinforcement, remote logons through SSH are prohibited for root users. You can use Virtual Network Computing (VNC) to log on to the operating system from the ECS console and create regular users that are allowed to log on through SSH. For more information, see Connect to an instance by using VNC.

    • CIS Reinforcement: You can enable Center for Internet Security (CIS) reinforcement only when you select an Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 image or Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 image. For more information, see CIS reinforcement.
    Note You cannot change the settings of the Security Reinforcement parameter after the cluster is created.

    Logon Type

    Valid values: Key Pair, Password, and Later.
    Note If you select Reinforcement based on classified protection for the Security Reinforcement parameter, only the Key Pair option is supported.
    • Configure the logon type when you create the node pool:
      • Key Pair: Alibaba Cloud SSH key pairs provide a secure and convenient method to log on to ECS instances. An SSH key pair consists of a public key and a private key. SSH key pairs support only Linux instances. For more information, see Overview.
      • Password: The password must be 8 to 30 characters in length, and must contain uppercase letters, lowercase letters, digits, and special characters.
    • Configure the logon type after you create the node pool: For more information, see Bind an SSH key pair to an instance and Reset the logon password of an instance.

    Public IP

    Specify whether to allocate an IPv4 address to each node. If you clear the check box, no public IP address is allocated. If you select the check box, you must also set the Bandwidth Billing Method and Peak Bandwidth parameters.
    Note This parameter takes effect only on newly added nodes and does not take effect on existing nodes. If you want to enable an existing node to access the Internet, you must create an elastic IP address (EIP) and associate the EIP with the node. For more information, see Associate an EIP with an ECS instance.

    CloudMonitor Agent

    Specify whether to install the CloudMonitor agent. After you install the CloudMonitor agent on ECS nodes, you can view the monitoring information about the nodes in the CloudMonitor console.
    Note This parameter takes effect only on newly added nodes and does not take effect on existing nodes. If you want to install the CloudMonitor agent on an existing ECS node, go to the CloudMonitor console.

    Advanced settings

    Click Show Advanced Options to configure advanced settings.

    Show advanced settings

    Parameter

    Description

    Node Protection

    Specify whether to enable node protection.
    Note By default, this check box is selected. Node protection prevents nodes from being accidentally deleted in the console or by calling the API.

    ECS Label

    Add labels to the ECS instances that are automatically added during auto scaling. Label keys must be unique. A key cannot exceed 128 characters in length. Keys and values cannot start with aliyun or acs:. Keys and values cannot contain https:// or http://.

    An ECS instance can have at most 20 labels. The following labels are automatically added to an ECS node by ACK and Auto Scaling. Therefore, you can add 17 labels to an ECS node.
    • The following two labels are added by ACK:
      • ack.aliyun.com:<Cluster ID>
      • ack.alibabacloud.com/nodepool-id:<Node pool ID>
    • The following label is added by Auto Scaling: acs:autoscaling:scalingGroupId:<Scaling group ID>.
    Note
    • After you enable auto scaling, the following labels are added to the node pool by default: k8s.io/cluster-autoscaler:true and k8s.aliyun.com:true.
    • The auto scaling component simulates scale-out activities based on node labels and taints. For this purpose, the format of each node label is changed to k8s.io/cluster-autoscaler/node-template/label/Label key:Label value and the format of each taint is changed to k8s.io/cluster-autoscaler/node-template/taint/Taint key/Taint value:Taint effect.

    Taints

    Add taints to nodes. A taint consists of a key, a value, and an effect. A taint key can be prefixed. If you want to specify a prefixed taint key, add a forward slash (/) between the prefix and the remaining content of the key. For more information, see Taints and tolerations. The following limits apply to taints:
    • Key: A key must be 1 to 63 characters in length, and can contain letters, digits, hyphens (-), underscores (_), and periods (.). A key must start and end with a letter or digit.

      If you want to specify a prefixed key, the prefix must be a subdomain name. A subdomain name consists of DNS labels that are separated by periods (.), and cannot exceed 253 characters in length. It must end with a forward slash (/). For more information about subdomain names, see Subdomain names.

    • Value: A value cannot exceed 63 characters in length, and can contain letters, digits, hyphens (-), underscores (_), and periods (.). A value must start and end with a letter or digit. You can also leave a value empty.
    • You can specify the following effects for a taint: NoSchedule, NoExecute, and PreferNoSchedule.
      • NoSchedule: If a node has a taint whose effect is NoSchedule, the system does not schedule pods to the node.
      • NoExecute: Pods that do not tolerate this taint are evicted after this taint is added to a node. Pods that tolerate this taint are not evicted after this taint is added to a node.
      • PreferNoSchedule: The system attempts to avoid scheduling pods to nodes with taints that are not tolerated by the pods.

    Node Label

    Add labels to nodes. A label is a key-value pair. A label key can be prefixed. If you want to specify a prefixed label key, add a forward slash (/) between the prefix and the remaining content of the key. The following limits apply to labels:
    • A key must be 1 to 63 characters in length, and can contain letters, digits, hyphens (-), underscores (_), and periods (.). A key must start and end with a letter or digit.

      If you want to specify a prefixed key, the prefix must be a subdomain name. A subdomain name consists of DNS labels that are separated by periods (.), and cannot exceed 253 characters in length. It must end with a forward slash (/). For more information about subdomain names, see Subdomain names.

      The following prefixes are used by key Kubernetes components and cannot be used in node labels:
      • kubernetes.io/
      • k8s.io/
      • Prefixes that end with kubernetes.io/ or k8s.io/. Example: test.kubernetes.io/.
        However, you can still use the following prefixes:
        • kubelet.kubernetes.io/
        • node.kubernetes.io
        • Prefixes that are end with kubelet.kubernetes.io/.
        • Prefixes that are end with node.kubernetes.io.
    • A value cannot exceed 63 characters in length, and can contain letters, digits, hyphens (-), underscores (_), and periods (.). A value must start and end with a letter or digit. You can also leave a value empty.
    • If you select Set New Nodes to Unschedulable, nodes are unschedulable when they are added to the cluster. You can set an existing node to schedulable on the Nodes page in the ACK console.

    Scaling Policy

    • Priority: The system scales the node pool based on the priorities of the vSwitches that you select for the node pool. The vSwitches that you select are displayed in descending order of priority. If Auto Scaling fails to create ECS instances in the zone of the vSwitch with the highest priority, Auto Scaling attempts to create ECS instances in the zone of the vSwitch with a lower priority.
    • Cost Optimization: The system creates instances based on the vCPU unit prices in ascending order. Preemptible instances are preferentially created when multiple preemptible instance types are specified in the scaling configurations. If preemptible instances cannot be created due to reasons such as insufficient stocks, the system attempts to create pay-as-you-go instances.

      If you select Preemptible Instance for the Billing Method parameter, you must set the following parameters:

      • Percentage of Pay-as-you-go Instances: Specify the percentage of pay-as-you-go instances in the node pool. Valid values: 0 to 100.
      • Enable Supplemental Preemptible Instances: After you enable this feature, Auto Scaling automatically creates the same number of preemptible instances 5 minutes before the system reclaims the existing preemptible instances. The system sends a notification to Auto Scaling 5 minutes before it reclaims preemptible instances.
      • Enable Supplemental Pay-as-you-go Instances: After you enable this feature, Auto Scaling attempts to create pay-as-you-go ECS instances to meet the scaling requirement if Auto Scaling fails to create preemptible instances for reasons such as that the unit price is too high or preemptible instances are out of stock.
    • Distribution Balancing: The even distribution policy takes effect only when you select multiple vSwitches. This policy ensures that ECS instances are evenly distributed among the zones (the vSwitches) of the scaling group. If ECS instances are unevenly distributed across the zones due to reasons such as insufficient stocks, you can perform a rebalancing operation.
    Important You cannot change the scaling policy of a node pool after the node pool is created.

    CPU Policy

    Specify the CPU management policy for the kubelet on nodes in the node pool.
    • None: The default CPU management policy.
    • Static: This policy allows pods with specific resource characteristics on the node to be granted enhanced CPU affinity and exclusivity.

    For more information, see CPU management policies.

    Custom Image

    • You can select a custom ECS image. After you select a custom image, all nodes in the cluster are deployed by using this image. For more information about how to create a custom image, see Create a Kubernetes cluster by using a custom image.
    • You can select a shared ECS image. After you select a shared image, all nodes in the cluster are deployed by using this image. For more information about shared images, see Procedure.
    Note
    • Only custom images based on CentOS 7.x and Alibaba Cloud Linux are supported.
    • To use this feature, apply to be added to the whitelist in Quota Center.

    RDS Whitelist

    Click Select RDS Instance to add node IP addresses to the whitelist of an ApsaraDB RDS instance.

    Custom Node Name

    Specify whether to use a custom node name. If you choose to use a custom node name, the name of the node, name of the ECS instance, and hostname of the ECS instance are changed.

    A custom node name consists of a prefix, an IP address, and a suffix.
    • A custom node name must be 2 to 64 characters in length.
    • The prefix and suffix can contain letters, digits, hyphens (-), and periods (.). The prefix and suffix must start with a letter and cannot end with a hyphen (-) or period (.). The prefix and suffix cannot contain consecutive hyphens (-) or periods (.).
    • Due to the ECS instance limit, the prefix is required. The suffix is optional.
    • For a Windows node that uses a custom node name, the hostname of the ECS instance is fixed to the IP address of the node. In the hostname, hyphens (-) are used to replace the periods (.) in the IP address. The hostname does not include the prefix or suffix.
    For example, the node IP address is 192.1xx.x.xx, the prefix is aliyun.com, and the suffix is test.
    • If the node runs Linux, the name of the node, name of the ECS instance, and hostname of the ECS instance are aliyun.com192.1xx.x.xxtest.
    • If the node runs Windows, the hostname of the ECS instance is 192-1xx-x-xx, and the names of the node and ECS instance are aliyun.com192.1xx.x.xxtest.

    User Data

    Only User-data scripts are supported. The user-data scripts are automatically run after you add nodes to the cluster. For more information, see Overview of ECS instance user data.
    Note After you create a cluster or add nodes, the execution of the custom script on a node may fail. We recommend that you log on to a node and run the grep cloud-init /var/log/messages command to view the execution log and check whether the execution succeeds or fails on the node.

    Step 4: Configure cluster components

    Click Next:Component Configurations to configure the basic settings and advanced settings of cluster components.

    Basic settings

    Parameter

    Description

    Ingress

    Specify whether to install an Ingress controller. By default, Nginx Ingress is selected. Valid values:

    Service Discovery

    Specify whether to install NodeLocal DNSCache. By default, NodeLocal DNSCache is installed.

    NodeLocal DNSCache runs a Domain Name System (DNS) caching agent to improve the performance and stability of DNS resolution. For more information about NodeLocal DNSCache, see Configure NodeLocal DNSCache.

    Volume Plug-in

    By default, CSI is installed as the volume plug-in. Dynamically Provision Volumes by Using Default NAS File Systems and CNFS, Enable NAS Recycle Bin, and Support Fast Data Restore is selected by default . ACK clusters can be automatically bound to Alibaba Cloud disks, Apsara File Storage NAS (NAS) file systems, and Object Storage Service (OSS) buckets that are mounted to pods. For more information, see Storage management - CSI.

    Monitoring Agents

    Enable Prometheus Monitoring is selected by default to monitor ACK clusters and generate alerts.

    Alerts

    Use Default Alert Rule Template is selected by default to enable alert rules. After you select this check box, you can specify contacts and contact groups. The default is Default Contact Group. For more information, see Alert management.

    Log Service

    Specify whether to enable Log Service. You can select an existing Log Service project or create one. By default, Enable Log Service is selected. When you create an application, you can enable Log Service with a few steps. For more information, see Collect log data from containers by using Log Service.

    By default, Create Ingress Dashboard is selected. You can specify whether to create Ingress dashboards in the Log Service console. For more information, see Analyze and monitor the access log of nginx-ingress-controller.

    By default, Install node-problem-detector and Create Event Center is selected. You can specify whether to enable the Kubernetes event center in the Log Service console. For more information, see Create and use an event center.

    Log Collection for Control Plane Components

    By default, Enable is selected to collect the logs of the control plane components in ACK managed clusters to your projects in Log Service. For more information, see Collect the logs of control plane components in ACK Pro clusters.

    Workflow Engine

    Specify whether to enable Alibaba Cloud Genomics Service (AGS).
    Note To use this feature, submit a ticket to apply to be added to a whitelist.
    • If you select this check box, the system automatically installs the AGS workflow plug-in when the system creates the cluster.
    • If you clear this check box, you must manually install the AGS workflow plug-in. For more information, see Introduction to AGS CLI.

    Cluster Inspection

    Specify whether to enable the cluster inspection feature for intelligent O&M. You can enable this feature to periodically check the resource quotas, resource usage, and component versions of a cluster and identify potential risks in the cluster. For more information, see Work with the cluster inspection feature.

    Advanced settings

    Click Show Advanced Options to select the components that you want to install.

    Step 5: Confirm the cluster configurations

    Click Next:Confirm Order, confirm the configurations, read and select the terms of service, and then click Create Cluster.

    After the cluster is created, you can find the cluster on the Clusters page in the ACK console.

    Note

    It requires about 10 minutes to create an ACK cluster that contains multiple nodes.

    What to do next

    • View the basic information about the cluster

      On the Clusters page, find the created cluster and click Details in the Actions column. On the cluster details page, click the Basic Information tab to view the basic information about the cluster and click the Connection Information tab to view information about how to connect to the cluster. The following information is displayed:

      • API Server Public Endpoint: the IP address and port that the API server of the cluster uses to provide services over the Internet. It allows you to manage the cluster by using kubectl or other tools on your client.

        Only ACK managed clusters support the Associate EIP and Disassociate EIP features.

        • Associate EIP: You can select an existing EIP or create an EIP.

          The API server restarts after you associate an EIP with the API server. We recommend that you do not perform operations on the cluster during the restart process.

        • Disassociate EIP: After you disassociate the EIP, you can no longer access the API server over the Internet.

          The API server restarts after you disassociate the EIP from the API server. We recommend that you do not perform operations on the cluster during the restart process.

      • API Server Internal Endpoint: the IP address and port that the API server uses to provide services within the cluster. The IP address belongs to the Server Load Balancer (SLB) instance that is associated with the cluster.

    References